Bolts & Fasteners: The Best Buys In Small Parts

If you've been into cars for any length of time, it's impossible not to have collected a pile of helpful little parts like wire, rubber fuel line, tubing, clamps, and used bolts. The (dis)organization of any small parts collection is best exemplified by a large plastic bin that weighs about 186 pounds and sits under the workbench overflowing with rusty/greasy/mangled bolts of all sizes and descriptions. And, of course, the collection is fully integrated, meaning the metric bolts are mixed in with the standard fasteners, making selection even more challenging. And despite the sheer numbers, the bolt you need is always the one you can't find. If you were to keep track (which no one wants to do), you might discover that each project demands a minimum of six trips to the auto parts/hardware store for all those little things.

If this description has vague overtones of your wrench-spinning efforts, allow us the luxury of a few suggestions. We can describe that scene because we've lived it many times over. However, we got tired of spending more time searching for fasteners and cotter pins than working, so we decided to improve our work space. Plus, we knew if we were to invest a few bucks to buy in bulk, we could avoid the pain of forking out $3.50 for three 5/16-inch stainless steel Allen bolts packaged in a cute plastic bag.

This pushed us into a quest to find a handful of reputable places where we could buy all those nagging little pieces at a better price, especially when we buy stuff in bulk. This means you may not need 100 feet of that trick woven wire covering. But if you enroll a couple of your car buddies to go in with you, the price becomes extremely attractive. Think of this as Costco for car freaks and you'll do just fine.

Bolts And Fasteners
Have you ever been in a professional shop with that giant wall of little steel bins full of brand-new bolts, nuts, and washers? Were you envious-like us? Our version is smaller but no less organized. If your idea of buying bolts is two or three at a time at the hardware or auto parts store, you're getting ripped off. The price markup on individual or prepackaged bolts is beyond ridiculous, which puts the solution at purchasing fasteners in bulk. We've found several places on the Internet that sell fasteners at a decent price that we will outline, but keep in mind that shipping must be included in the final price structure. We've also learned that having the company ship U.S. Postal Service can be cheaper, since its new shipping process is by the size of the box, not by weight. As an alternative to mail order, you may also be able to find high-quality fasteners at local aircraft-surplus outlets, especially if you live in or near large metropolitan areas.

As for the Internet locations we've found, two stand out. The first is a company called Bolt Depot out of Massachusetts that sells the typical fasteners, including Grade 5, Grade 8, and stainless. We only priced the national coarse thread pieces, but the fine-thread stuff is comparably priced. We've put together a little chart to show the prices at the time we did the research. We also found other cool things like 3/8-inch stainless washers for $7.00 for a box of 100 or 3/8-inch stainless nuts that go for $14.30 for a box of 50. The bolt lengths go all the way up to 7 inches, and you can find almost any metric fastener as well. We're going to have to add on to our current bolt bin to include the more popular metric fasteners now that we're working on the LS-series engines that are unfortunately all metric.

We also discovered a local automotive fastener company called TMK. Prices from this company for typical Grade 5, 8, and stainless capscrews are seriously less than any other place we've found. According to TMK, steel prices have come down as of late, and while many other outlets have retained their previous pricing, TMK has decided to pass along this cost savings to its customers. While TMK's prices are excellent, the company does not have a website-but a new catalog is on the way. If you know what you want, you can get a quote over the phone pretty quickly. We priced three of the most common fasteners, and at these prices you can definitely afford a collection.

2/12One caution when dealing with hardware store fasteners is that even a Grade 8-rated bolt may not be as strong as advertised. This is the typical bolt marking for a Grade 5 (left) and Grade 8 (right). A Grade 8 bolt is rated by the SAE as having a yield strength of 130,000 psi. Yield strength is defined as the load applied before it begins to permanently deform.

Just to give you a comparison, we priced a package of three 3/8x1-inch stainless steel bolts for $3.89 at a national chain hardware store. On a single bolt comparison, the hardware store is 13 times the TMK price, not counting shipping. While convenience is with the hardware store, the prices are painful. We found a similar situation with Grade 8 fasteners. The hardware store wanted 40 cents each for 3/8x1 bolts, while TMK's price was less than 9 cents, both based on a box of 100. Of course, you'll need to determine the various sizes and lengths you might want, but at these prices you can easily afford multiple boxes in various sizes. Then you can perform a ceremony and finally bury that can full of rusty bolts.

Bolt Price Comparison

Bolt Depot

Bolt

Grade 5 (100)

Grade 8 (50/100)

Stainless (100)

5/16 x 1

$11.93 ($0.12 each)

$7.67 (50) ($0.15 each)

$20.63 ($0.21 each)

3/8 x 1

$16.13 ($0.16 each)

$11.23 (100) ($0.11 each)

$28.51 ($0.285 each)

TMK

Bolt

Grade 5 (100)

Grade 8 (100)

Stainless (100)

1/4 x 1

$1.95

$2.65

$5.00

5/16 x 1

$2.50

$3.90

$6.60

3/8 x 1

$6.45

$8.55

$9.75

Classic Tube Pieces

Description

PN

Source

Price

3/8-inch stainless 25-foot tubing kit

K6S

Classic Tube

$68.50

3/8-inch mild steel 25-foot tubing kit

K6

Classic Tube

$23.50

1/2-inch bulk stainless tubing, 25 feet

SS2006

Classic Tube

$120.00

3/8-inch bulk stainless tubing, 20 feet

SS2005

Classic Tube

$84.00

3/8-inch bulk aluminum tubing, 25 feet

AL38

Classic Tube

$16.80

3/8-inch stainless fuel line, 20 feet

C6S

Classic Tube

$85.99

3/16-inch mild steel 25-foot tubing kit

K3

Classic Tube

$18.95

3/16-inch stainless 25-foot tubing kit

K3S

Classic Tube

$89.00

9/16x18 SAE fitting, 3/16 inch

SS7006

Classic Tube

$4.00

3/16-inch stainless 25-foot bulk tube

C3

Classic Tube

$69.00

1/2x20 SAE fitting, 3/16 inch (SS)

SS7004

Classic Tube

$3.00

1/2x20 SAE fitting, 3/16 steel

ST8008

Classic Tube

$0.25

Aircraft Parts For Muscle Cars
There is an undeniable connection between aviation and the high-performance automotive world. AN lines, aerospace fasteners, and heat shielding materials are just some of aviation's contributions. One place car crafters may not think to look for useful products is the homebuilt aircraft industry. We scored a phone book-sized catalog from a company called Aircraft Spruce & Supply, which offers all kinds of cool goodies that are interesting and affordable. For example, we found some cool, expandable, nylon-braided wire covering that other places sell for more than $1.00 per foot. Aircraft Spruce's price for a 100-foot length of similar 3/8-inch material goes for less than $50.00. If you work with rivets, as the aviation guys do, you probably won't find a larger selection than in the Aircraft Spruce catalog. We found some nonstructural aluminum rivets for an excellent 3 cents apiece. Hardware stores sell these same rivets for much more.

While searching through the catalog, we found a very cool sheetmetal working tool that we just had to tell you about. It's called an adjustable rivet spacer tool and looks like one of those expandable kiddie gates that blocks a doorway, except the bottom of each expanding leg is drilled with a hole that can be used to quickly mark evenly spaced rivet holes in large panels. Think how much time that would save. A 10-hole spacer is only $22.50, while the larger 20-hole spacer is less than $40.00. Aircraft Spruce also sells rivet guns and Cleco pliers at excellent prices and cushion (Adel) clamps in sizes from 1/8- to 1 3/4-inch diameters at far better prices than your local auto parts store.

Aircraft Spruce Pieces

Description

PN

Source

Price

3/8-inch cushion clamp

MS21919-WDG6

Aircraft Spruce

$0.42 each

1/2-inch cushion clamp

MS21919-WDG8

Aircraft Spruce

$0.41 each

Cleco pliers

12-01480

Aircraft Spruce

$4.40

Cleco pins, 1/8 inch (10)

12-01138

Aircraft spruce

$4.30

H-D rivet gun

12-18352

Aircraft Spruce

$32.95

1/8-inch aluminum rivets (100)

BSPS-42

Aircraft Spruce

$3.00

Adjustable rivet spacer (10 hole)

12-00184

Aircraft Spruce

$22.50

Adjustable rivet spacer (20 hole)

12-11700

Aircraft Spruce

$39.85

Electrical Components
Here's where we could probably fill the entire magazine with ideas, parts, and wiring kits, so we really had to exercise self-control and not stuff this section with part numbers. While most car crafters don't worry much about what wire they buy, they really should. The wire you find at the local hardware store or auto parts store generally uses an inexpensive insulator that can quickly become brittle. We found a company called Del City that supplies many aftermarket companies with high-quality electrical wire and components. Del City's SAE spec wire is designed to withstand continual exposure to as high as 257 degrees F. Generally, you would expect to pay more for a quality wire like this, but we purchased 100-foot spools of 18-gauge black and red wire for less than $7.00 each. When we checked at the auto parts store, we found a 30-foot roll for $6.99, so by purchasing in bulk, you get three times as much wire that's also a superior quality.

9/12Weatherpak connectors are great for quick-disconnect wiring and also excellent at maintaining the connection over long periods of time. The connectors require a special crimping tool.

We also went looking for the good stuff like Weatherpak connectors. If you're not familiar with these components, GM used to use them on the TPI cars. While a special tool is required to make the connection, Weatherpak fittings offer excellent weather-resistant connections that are also simple to disconnect. Del City sells a 425-piece system in a plastic box that contains 10 each of the one-, two-, three-, and four-way connectors plus all the little rubber seals and wire connectors for the outstanding price of only $44.07. If you are wiring a street car, these make for excellent quick-access wire connectors. For the assembly tool, MSD sells a slick spark plug wire crimping tool with removable jaws through Summit Racing. You can then purchase a set of Weatherpak crimping jaws for $35.00 that will keep the tool cost to just over $100.00. Plus, you'll have a nice spark plug wire crimping tool as a bonus.